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We Said “Vande Mataram” with Toys

Toybanker: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Umesh (Age -11): Police.

Toybanker: Why Police?

Umesh: They are strong and protect everybody.

That is how confident and ambitious the future of India is. In every child there is a dream and in every dream there is a possibility. It’s a universal concept- the environment shapes the future of a child. True. But at Toybank we have an additional concept- Give a toy, give a future. A child’s toy, which is also a child’s engagement, shapes its future. Standing true to our tagline, we, the Toybankers on the morning of August 15 reached Pragati Vidyalaya & Junior College in Borivli, Mumbai to celebrate the Independence Day differently.

Independent India is a world of hopes and opportunities for everybody. The children, who are standing close to witness what the country has to offer, deserve to be pampered and encouraged from time to time. As the students of Pragati Vidyala prepared to pay respect to the country by hoisting the tri-color on their play ground, the enthusiastic Toybankers prepared to make the students smile by the end of the day. After singing the National Anthem together, while saluting the flag, we marched towards the classrooms to engage with the children and end the sessions with toy distributions.

This is Toybank’s tenth year and it being a remarkable milestone for all of us here, we have decided to make every event and activity as splendid as possible. Wearing our smiles, we connected with the children with various activities. This is one of the events for Toybank which saw a huge number of individuals volunteering to help. We had volunteers from corporates, colleges, the constant volunteers and a few new ones J

“Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof

Because I'm happy

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

Because I'm happy

Clap along if you know what happiness is to you

Because I'm happy

Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do…”

We at Toybank have a walking talking “Happy”- Pravin Tulpule who is also called Happy (with love) was a treat as always for every child at the school. He amused all with his humor and tricks.

After singing many songs, reciting many poems, clapping many times, we said goodbye to every student of the primary and secondary sections with a toy each. The smiles which we got in return can be treasured forever.

Many a times, people ask each other, ‘what delights you?” That day on August 15 with patriotic songs blaring out of the speakers, children running around with happiness written all over their faces, the thought which struck me was- “This” is what delights me! I know I will not be making a hasty generalization if I said “That” is what delights all of us at Toybank. The smiles, the cheers, the tiny hope peeping out of every face, teamwork and above all the ‘intention’ are delightful. Completing ten and looking at many more years to come, we can collectively and positively say that Toybank will continue making its contribution to make the world a better place to live!

Toybank, an initiative under The Opentree Foundation, is an organization in India that promotes the Right to Play for all children, because a happy childhood defines almost every aspect of a child’s life and in turn the society. Founded in August 2004, our motto is to provide every economically-disadvantaged child an equal opportunity to education, achieved through healthy play and games.
As of January 2018, Toybank has set up 276 Play Centers and impacts the lives of 43,009 at-risk children every day.